Hijacking the Enchantress
by Gaeriel Mallory
Summary: A group of highjackers take over a cruise liner. But are they what they seem? COMPLETE


A/N: This was my very first fic ever so it is not as polished as my others. The universe and Admiral Ackbar are not mine. All the other characters are though. No copyright infringement intended.

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**Hijacking the _Enchantress_**

By Gaeriel Mallory

Fal looked out the window, his green eyes staring at the streaks that passed by it.  With one knee up on the cushioned bench, he leaned his chin on his hand, giving an air of contemplative thought.  It was the ship's night cycle and even the most fun-loving passenger was in bed.

Suddenly, a shudder ran through the room, causing Fal to lose his balance and fall onto the floor.  Sirens blared out in the hallway and a computerized voice spoke calmly through the horns.

"Please remain calm.  The _Enchantress has come out of hyperspace prematurely.  We will continue on shortly.  Please remain calm.  The __Enchantress has come out of hyperspace prematurely…."_

Fal picked himself off the floor and tugged his expensive clothing back in place.  A slow smile spread over his face; phase one completed.

*          *          *

"Why did we stop?" Captain Tera demanded as she charged onto the bridge.  She stood tall with an arrogant feel about her.  Her gray uniform was neat and her brown hair was in a bun but her aristocratic face was hard and her eyes were cold.

The navigation officer looked up from his screens and grimaced.  "I don't know, ma'am.  I would have expected a large asteroid, or maybe another ship, but," he waved his hands toward the window, "nothing."

Tera sighed.  "What about the hyperspace generator?  Anything wrong with that?"

The officer shook his head.  "No, ma'am.  Not that I could find."

She glared over her hawkish nose around the bridge and the officers at the posts looked away from her.  "Well, find out what went wrong.  The sooner we get to Kessel, the sooner we get paid."

A murmur of assent came from the assembled bridge and the captain turned and left as abruptly as she had come in.

*          *          *

Fal placed a large black case onto his bed and opened it.  Inside was enough weaponry to take out a small village.  He selected two blasters, holstering one and attaching it to his belt and keeping the other one in his hand.  He then slung a belt of power packs over his head.  He had already traded his rich clothing that had been his disguise for a plain shirt and sturdy trousers.

He opened his door and slipped out, making sure he was not seen.  Overhead, the red emergency lights and the sirens blazed merrily overhead with the announcement to "stay calm" echoing throughout the ship.

_According to the map of the ship, there should be a conduit right here—ah.  The metal panel came off easily in his hand.  He slipped into the tunnel and pulled the panel back into the wall, masking his point of entry.  __This is almost too easy._

_Right, up a level, a left, straight, and bingo.  Fal backed up until he reached an intersection where he could turn around.  Heading back towards the dead-end feet first, he kicked the panel out of the wall and dropped down._

"About time you showed up, Fal."

Fal grinned at the Mon Calamari in front of him.  "Wouldn't be a party without me."  He nodded to the rest of the group made up of one other human, a Bothan, and a Twi'lek.  Of them all, he knew Babut, the Mon Calamari, the best.

The human stirred restlessly, her long brown hair tied back.  "If we are done with the greetings, may we?"  She held a rather nasty looking blaster in her hands and had a smaller one attached to her belt.

"Of course."  Fal bowed and indicated the conduit.  "After you, m'dear Madira."

She scowled at him, annoyed at his pun on her name and turned her back to him.

*          *          *

The blare of the alarm was muffled in the conduits.  They made their way slowly, with Rel, the Twi'lek, leading the way.  They were silent except for the dull clangs they made crawling.  Fal began to lose all sense of time and concentrated only with putting one hand in front of the other.

Rel stopped abruptly, causing Fal to bump into Babut and the Bothan Yest to bump into him in turn.

"We are here," Rel whispered quietly.  "This shaft leads directly down to the bridge.  All we have to do is jump down it one by one."

The group backed up to give Rel space.  He swung into the shaft and they heard his feet hit the ceiling panel and the clank it gave when it hit the floor.  Surprised shouts were heard and blaster fire.

Without hesitating, they jumped down the shaft.  Fal hit the floor with both feet and rolled out of the way to give Yest room to land.  He came up with blaster in hand and stunned the navigations officer and the pilot.

Soon, all the bridge personnel were unconscious.  Fal toed a senseless Bothan that lay at his feet.  "The fools weren't even armed."

Madir looked at Rel.  "Did any of them get a distress call sent or warn the rest of the crew?"

He shook his tentacled head.  "I shot the com officer first.  He didn't get a chance."

"Then, shouldn't we give the signal, now?" asked Yest.

"By all means."  Rel walked over to the com station and pushed the unconscious officer out of his chair.  "But first…" He killed the alarm, causing silence to descend throughout the ship.

Madira rubbed her ears.  "Finally.  I thought that cursed noise would never end."

Rel then hit the button that caused all the passengers' rooms to lock.  "That should do it.  No idiots stumbling into a stray blaster bolts."

Babut reached into his trouser pocket and pulled out a comlink.  He thumbed it on and spoke into it.  "Bridge is secured.  Commence with phase three of the plan."

"Roger that," the person on the other end said.

Rel nodded to Yest.  "Stay here and hold the bridge.  The rest of us are going to meet up with Tamin."

*          *          *

Captain Tera snarled, her gray eyes furious.  "Idiot!" she screamed at her aide.  "You should have known that there would be an attack.  Why didn't you?"

The aide stood firm and looked her in the eye.  "But I did know," he said smoothly.

A confused look flooded her face.  "But why didn't you—?"  And then realization.  "Traitor!" she roared and dove for his throat.

He caught her arms easily and brought his knee into her gut sharply, twice.  He then let go of one of her arms and hit the base of her neck.  Tera slumped in his arms.

He tied her securely and then spoke into his comlink.  "Tera's secured."

*          *          *

Babut closed the link.  "Renem got Tera," he told his comrades.

Fal stunned a charging human crewmember and grinned. "Let's see how well the snake can bite without its head."

Madira swore as her blaster fizzled in her hand and she dropped it.  "Damn it!"  She pulled her spare from her belt and resumed firing at the crewmen at the other end of the hallway.  "Where's our backup?" she demanded.  "They should be here by now!"

Rel ducked a blaster bolt and shouted back, "I don't know!  Maybe they met up with some trouble."

Babut's comlink chimed and he turned away from the firefight to turn it on.  He listened for a few minutes and then turned to the group.  "Tamin's coming.  We just have to hold up for a few more minutes."

Fal looked down at his ammo belt and counted the remaining power packs.  He winced and then pulled a new one off and slammed it onto his blaster.

A blaster bolt almost singed his hair and he jerked upright.  _That came from behind us!  He let out a strangled cry and stunned the Twi'lek who had been firing at him.  "They're coming from both ends!" he warned._

And they were.  The team was surrounded from in front and behind and had only a pile of crates as cover.  "Tamin, where are you?" Fal muttered as he returned fire.

*          *          *

"Fal, where the hell are you?" Tamin muttered under his breath as he took yet another turn that did not lead to Fal and the others.  He could hear blaster fire and shouting in the distance but could not find his way to join in the action.

The black-furred Wookiee at his side roared at him.

Tamin glared.  "Yeah, I know, you're sorry.  You've been saying that for the past ten minutes."

Another roar.

"Yeah.  The famous Chewbacca would have never done something as stupid as lose the map."

Roar.

"Talamok, I don't care he's your distant cousin.  What I care about is getting to Fal and the others before they're charred meat."

The Wookiee roared and pointed around a corner.

"You _think it's down that way?  The last time you said that, I almost walked out an airlock!"_

Talamok pointed more emphatically and roared again.

"Fine, fine.  That way it is.  But if I end up sucking space, I'm pulling you in after me." 

*          *          *

They had gotten the crates rearranged so that there was protection from both sides.  But that left them with only a very short wall that they could use for cover.

Madira threw an empty power pack towards a human crewmember who was aiming his blaster at her.  "This is getting hopeless.  Where is Tamin?"

Rel fired off a shoot and answered.  "That's what I'd like to know."  He shot a glance over at Babut.  "How're you holding up?"

Babut shot a female human before answering.  " A few hours in a bacta tank and I should be fine."  The Mon Calamari had been shot in the arm by a Rodian. Fal had picked him off right after the creature had shot his friend.

Suddenly, a roar broke through the sound of blasterfire.  Talamok charged around the corner, blaster blazing.  He picked up a screaming human by the shirt and flung him at the group of crewmen who had been shooting at his friends behind the crates.

Tamin raced past the Wookiee and hurdled the crates to join the besieged group.  "Sorry I'm late.  The walking rug lost the map."  He fired a shot at the attacking group on the other side.  "You've been holding back _two groups?" he asked incredulously._

Fal nodded grimly.  "Yeah.  And we're almost out of power packs.  Hope the others are doing better than we are."

"I passed by Garl's group on the way here.  They had just taken over the cargo bays." 

"That's good."

Tamin glanced over at Bubut who was looking pale for a Mon Calamari.  "What's wrong with your friend?"

"He got shot in the shoulder.  The bastards have their blasters set on 'kill'."

Tamin shook his head, shaking mud colored hair out of his eyes.  "I just hope the fleet gets here soon.  Some of the passengers are panicking.  I heard some woman in her room pounding on her door and screaming.  They probably think we're some kind of pirates."

Rel looked over and smiled, his pointed teeth flashing wickedly.  "Oh, we are; the good kind anyway."

Madira peered over the top of the crates.  "I believe Talamok is done with those guys.  Think we can get him to work on the ones who are still firing at us?"

Tamin lobbed off another shot and yelled over his shoulder.  "Hey!  A little help here!"

Talamok raised his head and roared.  He ran towards the fort and jumped over both sets of crates to land on the other side.  He grabbed the arm of a red-haired human and swung him into a Sullustan.  A Rodian jumped onto the Wookie's back and tried to choke him but Talamok just reached behind him and flipped the Rodian into the wall.  The rest of the group was dispatched just as easily.

Fal stood up from his crouch and stretched the kinks out of his legs.  "Where to now, oh fearless leader?" he asked Rel.

"Back to the bridge.  This dogfight took far to long and we need to see if the fleet has arrived yet."

*          *          *

Yest had his blaster aimed at them when the door opened.

Rel stepped through.  "Relax; it's us."

The Bothan lowered his weapon.  "I received a transmission from the fleet.  They should be here soon."

"Good."

The com crackled.  "Calling the _Enchantress.  This is the __Liberation calling the __Enchantress."_

Rel went over to the com station.  "_Liberation?  This is the __Enchantress.  Who is this?"_

"This is Admiral Ackbar."

*          *          *

"Your team did a good job, Rel."

"Thank you Admiral."

Tera glared at the assembled group in front of her.  She was manacled to her chair and a guard stood behind her.  Ackbar had come over from his ship to confront her after seeing Babut into a bacta tank on the _Liberation._

He leaned back in his chair and looked at the former captain.  "We have been after you for a long time.  But you will now be taken in for breaking New Republic law."

Fal drawled, "Y'know, you had a nice scam going on, taking people on a one-way cruise that leads to Kessel and then ransoming your passengers for money."

Renem, Tera's former aide spoke up. "You won both ways.  You got the money from the ticket sales and then you got a huge bundle from the ransoms."  He grinned and nodded towards Fal.  "Fal here was a wonderful actor, pretending to be a passenger."  His grin widened.  "But _I was better."_

Madira rolled her eyes.  "Speaking of passengers, did anyone let them out of their rooms, yet?"

Rel sat up in his chair and swore.  His team laughed at him as he raced out of the room and towards the bridge.


End file.
